Should You Buy The PlayStation 4's $60 Camera?

The $59.99 PlayStation
Camera is sold separately from the console.Kirsten Acuna / Business Insider

Sony's PlayStation 4 console came out Friday.

If you purchased one of the next-gen consoles for $399 you may
have noticed you're not able to play the pre-installed game that
came with the system right away.

In order to do that, you need the PlayStation Camera that's sold separately for an additional $59.99 — the same price as any
additional controllers you may want to purchase in addition to
the one that comes standard with the console.

Is the camera really necessarily to get the full use of your new
game console?

Here's what you should know before buying the PS4 camera.

It's Super Small

Sony really knocked it out of the park with the design on this
thing. It's super small compared to the Xbox 360 Kinect so it
barely takes up any room on your entertainment console. (We'll
show you a photo of it next to the new Kinect later this week.)

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

You can lay it flat or stand it up. You can check out more photos of it
here.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT?

1. Give the PS4 Simple Voice Commands

Unlike the Xbox 360, there isn't a multitude of commands to give
the PlayStation 4, and that's OKAY.

Similar to Microsoft's gaming platform, to tell Sony's next-gen
console to do something you use the word, PlayStation. Simple
enough.

After you login, you're given three option commands from the
homescreen: Power, Take Screenshot, Login (to change between
users playing). Any command you can say pops up easily
on the screen to read.

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

Hover over a game and you're given the option to start. Once
inside the game, you can easily return to the homescreen at any
time saying "PlayStation: Home Screen."

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

Want to return to the game? Say: "PlayStation: Back to game."

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

That's great. But does it work?

This screen came up a few times after saying
"PlayStation" from the homescreen without me telling the console
to power off.Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

95% of the time, yes, though I've experienced a few hiccups. For
instance, I've said "PlayStation Start" and the console will go
over to another game. This didn't seem to happen much at all. A
problem I've encountered multiple times is that if I say
"PlayStation" and let the command options hover for a little, it
goes directly to Power without having said anything. It's not a
huge problem as you can easily go back, but if it happens
multiple times, it does begin to get a bit frustrating.

I've also had to say some commands more than once.

But when the PS4 commands work — and they usually do — they work
very quickly. I can tell
the PlayStation various commands and it can swap between them
effortlessly. However, like I said, there aren't many commands
for the system to go back and forth between.

2. Facial
Recognition

As an alternative to logging in
to your PS4 username manually at launch, the PlayStation has the
ability to log you in just by recognizing your face.

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

You can go through a simple
painless face recognition setup (it took us about a minute, if
that) and then you're good to go.

Here's what it looks
like:

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

Kirsten
Acuna / Business Insider

Kirsten
Acuna / Business Insider

Kirsten
Acuna / Business Insider

This is a cool added feature,
and maybe will have use in future games, but at the moment it's
not something that really changes your gaming experience with the
console.

Okay — but what if I don't want to log in with facial
recognition?

You can simply turn it off under Login settings.

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

While we were with the Sony reps last week, they didn't
push the camera on us as a necessary feature. They showed us how
it worked and what it was capable of at the moment, but we didn't
spend too much time with it. They were more focused on showing us
other features of the controller and console along with
games.

3. Watch Yourself Play with Adorable Robots

The best thing you're currently able to do with the camera is
play with virtual reality robots in The Playroom, a game that
comes pre-installed with the PS4.

Without the camera, you can't enable The Playroom. This isn't the
end of the world; however, if you've seen Jimmy Fallon on Late
Night playing with the robots, it looks like you're missing
out.

Essentially, you're given full reign over your own minion army of
robots. You can play with them, toss them around, scare them, and
more. You just can't have them do your bidding.

We have to admit, it IS fun.
This is where the PlayStation shows off its full range
of capabilities, but after 10-15 minutes you'll
probably wonder what else you can do with them on camera. If
you're not planning to invest, and have kids, you may want to
keep them from seeing the robots at all cost.

Wait. Are there other games I can play with the
camera?

There aren't a bunch yet, and that's a shame because Sony's
Camera works great with the PS4.

Inside The Playroom you can also play with another robot called
Asobi who's not as much fun as the little robots. You can tickle
it and make it mad at you, but not much else.

Kirsten Acuna / Business
Insider

You can also play air hockey,
but you need a second player and controller (another $59.99
gadget that doesn't come included with the console) to
play.

If you're into motion games,
Just Dance 2014 makes use of the new camera
as well.

4. What else can I do with it?

If you're live streaming your gameplay on Twitch or Ustream, the
camera allows you to narrate while playing.

CONCLUSION

The PlayStation 4 Camera is great, but it's not necessary ...
yet.

I really like PS4's camera. It's small enough to not look bulky
on your entertainment console. There aren't a lot of commands to
say, but that's okay. Sony keeps it simple without
overcomplicating. With Microsoft's Kinect I feel slightly
overwhelmed by the amount of command options at my disposal, that
I usually don't end up using them anyway.

Overall, it works great. Certainly, the technology isn't perfect
as I had to repeat myself a few times, but for the most part, I
didn't have many problems. The biggest issue I found was that I
wanted to do more and I just haven't found much necessary use for
it yet.

If you don't have the $60 now and rather invest in a second
controller, you won't be missing out on much (granted you can
live without virtual robots).